Dish Network on Saturday (March 31) dropped Univision’s digital lifestyle channels, including Telehit and Bandamax, from its lineup of Spanish-language programming.
Univision currently has a deal for Dish to carry its bigger networks including Univision, UniMas and Galavision. Those channels remain on the satellite distributor's service.
The programmer says it offered Dish an extension to continue carriage of the channels, but the satellite company turned it down.
“We are very disappointed that Dish has decided to drop our lifestyle channels,” Univision said in a statement. “Together, Telehit and Bandamax serve an often-ignored audience that looks to consume culturally-relevant content that represents their world in ways other channels do not: by providing the music, lifestyle and celebrity entertainment geared toward a young Latino audience. Despite our disappointment, we are actively negotiating to restore the music and movie programming audiences love to their lineup.”
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Dish said the channels have grown less popular with subscribers.
“Viewership for these channels has declined nearly 40% over the past five years,” the satellite distributor said.
“Dish constantly evaluates the content we carry, and we work to provide channels that our customers desire at the best value," the company added. "Unfortunately, Univision has yet to even send us a proposal to begin negotiations. We are providing very similar channels (Azteca Cinema, Estudio 5, Videorola and Azteca Clic) in their place at no extra cost so that our customers don’t miss out on culturally-relevant entertainment they enjoy."
